Forever Young
by Wannabe Mischief
Summary: Wheeljacks invention creates an unusual problem


**Forever Young**

**Chapter 1**

**Normal POV**

The Ark was peaceful (as peaceful as it can get with the twins, Ratchet and Wheeljack); all the Autobots were either going about their duties or relaxing. Wheeljack at this moment was in his lab experimenting with an invention that, if it worked, would allow anyone to speak with the dead; the general consensus on the base was that it would explode.

Sideswipe had already started up a betting pool on when, where, who would get caught in the blast radius and what body parts Wheeljack would lose. Its current results were 90% failure; there were the few optimistic or insane mechs that betted that it would work.

Wheeljack had been inspired on this project by Bluestreak, who had wondered (in between other topics) whether it would be possible to talk to the dead, if the dead would respond and who would respond. That had been over three Earth months ago; little did Wheeljack know that his experiment had gotten the interest of one particular ghost.

**? POV**

The ghost hovered; it had seen much and done much since it had died. The pain and anger that it had felt to the mechs that he now haunted a distant memory. It only knew regret now, for the ones that he threw away and for the ones that it had killed. Watching over them as they lay in stasis had given it time to think … too much time.

It was dwelling on these dark thoughts as Wheeljack made a final touch to the device that weirdly enough ended up looking like a metal crystal ball, it had buttons on the base and was shined to a level that would make Sunstreaker and Tracks jealous. It was at this point that Wheeljack commed Ratchet and Prowl.

-Have finished experiment and will inform you of the outcome- this was said cheerfully and optimistically.

Ratchet responded first. - I have First Aid on standby and do not mistake that since you have kindly pre-warned me that you are going to blow yourself up that I will not reformat you into a toaster-

Prowl answered a few seconds later. - I have all the necessary forms in front of me and I await Ratchets call to complete them-

The ghost had spent enough time on board the Ark to know that this was an almost weekly event and that even though the CMO and the SIC had replied with almost scathing tones (as well as Ratchet's threat) that they were not as inconvenienced as they sounded and that in the end they would be relieved that he had not blown himself up.

That was the last thought that it had as the experiment blew up in a most spectacular way (Wheeljack had made explosions into an art form, Sunstreaker had created some fantastic art of the resulting smoke clouds going for almost a grand a piece)

The pain was just too intense, there were the beginnings of claustrophobia and vertigo setting in, it could not think, its form shrunk and pitched forward into the waiting darkness, maybe it was really dead…

**Normal POV**

Wheeljack woke up in the mess that had been his lab, the explosion had done mostly superficial damage to the walls, everything else inside had been reduced to rubble. Wheeljack himself was in one piece suffering only minor shrapnel injuries and blackening which Ratchet will not be happy about.

He was interrupted in his diagnosis with the arrival of Ratchet, Prowl, Inferno and Hound. Ratchet and Prowl went straight to Wheeljack while Inferno and Hound assessed the damage.

"Most of this looks trashed; there were fortunately no fires so the cleanup can begin right away. I believe that we should consult Grapple and Hoist when they return but it should not take that long to fix, Wheeljack will be blowing up the lab again soon… Hound what's wrong?" throughout this assessment Hound had been wandering around a small part of the lab.

"I smell something underneath the rubble; can you help me to lift it?" Inferno nodded his agreement and positioned himself on the other side of the rubble "three, two, one, lift" as the rubble was lifted away it revealed a tiny crawlspace containing one very small sparkling.

* * *

_A/N: I have finally gotten around to actually reposting some of my old stuff. This chapter wasn't too bad but I am open to suggestions on making it better. First posted in 2010_


End file.
